Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc)’s Region 4 Forward Command, said the bomb attack happened at 4.10pm on rural road 3008 in Ban Pa Wang Nai (Moo 1), Tambon Bannang Sata, Bannang Sata district.
Suspected insurgents detonated the bomb just as a pickup truck carrying the rangers was passing the spot. The vehicle was catapulted on to its roof due to the impact, while a hole measuring two metres wide and one metre deep was also left in the middle of the road. The injured were team-leading ranger Sub Lieutenant Anuwat Chuchana and three volunteer paramilitary rangers, Ekkachai Srikhamleu, Chukiat Ut-ang, and Pratheep Theminpana.
Bannang Sata deputy inspector Pol Captain Suriya Kuadam said police collected various items of evidence from the roadside, including the remnants of a 20kg cooking gas cylinder, electrical wires and shrapnel.
Initial suspicions are that the homemade bomb was housed inside the gas cylinder.
The attack was the latest in a long-running campaign of violence targeting police and army officers in the South.